


Scars

by celeste9



Series: February Challenge Fics [9]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, M/M, Past Relationship(s), Wings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-16 01:46:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13625964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/celeste9/pseuds/celeste9
Summary: It had been a long time since Ben showed up at their old meeting place, but no matter what had happened between them, Poe couldn't resist finding out why Ben was there now. (superpowers AU)





	Scars

**Author's Note:**

> Day 9: superhero/supervillain AU

Poe caught a glimpse of the dark figure looming in the shadows on the rooftop, blending in with the night, and considered. It had been a long time since Ben had shown up to their meeting place.

The wound on his cheek had scarred, but that wasn’t truly what marked Poe after their last encounter, when Poe had been taken prisoner.

Even so, Poe considered only a moment before taking flight, settling lightly on his feet behind Ben, wings folding behind him. The breeze ruffled Ben’s dark hair – no masks tonight. He could tell by the shift in Ben’s posture that he knew Poe was there, but he didn’t turn.

“Finn had a run-in with Hux earlier. Was that your doing?”

Ben scoffed. “I claim no responsibility for him.”

“If you, Hux, and Phasma ever started working together, you might actually accomplish something.”

“Are you making suggestions?” Ben said, and turned.

This was the closest Poe had been to Ben since his altercation with Rey. The scar that now bisected his face should have made him unfamiliar, so different from the boy Poe had loved, but it suited him somehow. “You should’ve asked Rey to mess up your face a long time ago. Makes you look the part, instead of just some pretty boy poser.”

“Is that what you tell yourself when you look in the mirror?”

Poe touched his cheek. He was lucky his face was all that had been permanently damaged. “I’ve been told it makes me look rugged.”

“I’m sure that’s what you’d like to believe.”

“You don’t look displeased, anyway.”

It was weird, how easily they could fall back into old habits, as if all the years and all the drama between them didn’t matter, as if they weren’t on opposite sides of this mess and as if Ben hadn’t held Poe captive and yanked secrets out of his head while Poe screamed.

Poe had genuinely thought that after what happened with Snoke, after Ben… that he would come to his senses, that he would remember that he belongs here, with them, with Poe.

But Ben was still trying to be someone else and Poe wondered if even he knew what it was exactly that he wanted. Carrying on the legacy of his grandfather, the fearsome Darth Vader, that was always the line. What that even meant Poe had never understood; Darth Vader’s last act had been born of love, remembering the man he used to be before he put on a mask. Poe didn’t think Ben’s grandfather would want anything to do with this legacy of fear.

“I’ll admit I was surprised to see you here, Ben,” Poe said.

Ben clenched his jaw. “It’s Kylo Ren.”

“Right. Kylo. Sorry.” Poe didn’t roll his eyes but he hoped the tone of his voice conveyed the sentiment well enough. “Because Kylo Ren killed Ben Solo.”

“He was weak.”

“And you aren’t? Big, bad, tough Kylo Ren? Who takes out his master?”

Ben took a step forward, looming more as he got closer, emphasizing his height. “Snoke thought he could keep me on a leash, use me for his own gain. He was wrong.”

_And yet you continue down the dark path he set you on,_ Poe thought but didn’t say. He knew there was no point. Ben had stopped listening to him a long time ago.

“And now you’re your own man, huh?” Poe said instead. “A lone wolf, fighting with the people who theoretically are on your side, and fighting harder against the ones who loved you.” _Still love you, even. Some of them._ “You seem really happy about it.”

Ben’s mouth was in a thin, angry line. “Still as judgmental as ever. Every choice that’s not yours is wrong.”

“I’ve never believed that, and you know it. But yeah, I do think your choices are shit, and if you actually thought about them, you’d think so, too. Instead you just keep stumbling along in the dark, thinking you’ll somehow make it where you want to go, but you lost the map years ago.”

“How poetic,” Ben spat out. “Has it ever occurred to you that I know what I’m doing?”

“No,” Poe said. “No, actually, it hasn’t.” He was the one who moved closer now, daring to drag his fingertips down Ben’s scar, feeling him tremble, his breathing hitching, but he let Poe do it. “I think you have no idea what you’re doing.”

Ben caught Poe’s wrist and held his hand there, against Ben’s cheek. “You don’t know anything.”

“Maybe I don’t, but I did always know you. I understood you better than--”

“You never understood me!” Ben said, his voice an enraged hiss. He pushed Poe’s hand away but didn’t move, their bodies close so that Poe had to look up to see his face. “You never understood anything. It’s why…”

“You left?” Poe finished, quiet and small. He shook out his wings slightly, feathers ruffling, in an anxious gesture he had never quite been able to rid himself of. “It was all my fault?”

Ben looked away, taking a heaving breath as if forcing calm.

“I’m sorry for the mistakes I made, Ben. But I wasn’t the only one who made any.”

“You never understood,” Ben said again, murmuring it this time.

“If I didn’t, you never gave me the chance to. You kept me at a distance. You can’t blame me for not knowing what you wouldn’t share with me.”

“It doesn’t matter. It’s in the past. I’m not him anymore, and you aren’t…”

_I’m no one who matters to you,_ Poe thought, and was glad when Ben didn’t say it out loud.

“You’re Kylo Ren, yeah, I remember,” Poe said, and watched Ben’s expression flicker. He could pretend all he wanted but he remained the same lost boy he had always been. “I’m not likely to forget, am I?”

The flinch that resulted from his words was honestly more than Poe had expected, and weirdly gratifying.

Maybe Ben regretted it. Maybe it had hurt him, too.

“Talk to your mother, Ben. She’s the only one who still believes in you.” Poe turned away.

“Don’t you?”

Ben sounded so young, young and scared and vulnerable, and Poe wished he would just figure out how to make the right choice for once.

Poe looked back at him, just for a second. He remembered how badly it had hurt, Ben in his head, using his powers against Poe, but how much worse than the physical pain his sense of loss had been. “I never really counted, did I? Not enough, and clearly not to you.”

He took off before Ben could say a word, spreading his wings and dropping over the side of the building before soaring up, high as the clouds.

Up here, nothing mattered but the sky.


End file.
